With CCTV cameras recording across the country, it is common to see footage showing criminal incidents. However, the use of CCTV as evidence is not always as clear as the footage may suggest.
Some CCTV cameras provide low quality, grainy footage which make it difficult to identify the people involved. Black and white footage, footage without audio and footage which captured intermittent stills can also be deemed unreliable as there could be some vital information missing.
With HD CCTV taking over the industry, allowing clear number plate recognition and 1080p images, there is reason for the police to start taking this evidence more seriously.
Recently, London Metropolitan police have been among some of the first to gain qualifications in gathering CCTV footage for use as evidence. There are many factors which could determine the reliability of CCTV footage, so with these qualifications the police specialists will be better equipped to make use of possibly valuable evidence. With facial mapping and event tracking part of the processes to develop the footage into full evidence, ‘Producing Forensic Images for Evidential Purposes’ is aiming to make CCTV evidence a forensic discipline as much as fingerprints or DNA.
CCTV cameras have always been a great deterrent for crime, but now that the police are taking the footage more seriously and doing what they can to make it reliable courtroom evidence, it is becoming even more of a commodity.
Read more about the story here.